Revealed: 2018 Holden Commodore

Here it is folks, your first look at the production exterior and interior of the imported 2018 Holden Commodore.

Sure, these images are digitally created, but this is the very accurate cyberspace rendition of the Sportback five-door version of what will be rolling into Holden dealerships to replace the locally-built Commodore from February 2018.

What do you think?

The new Commodore is an Opel Insignia designed and built in Germany, with some localised styling tweaks and badging to identify it as a Holden. But in terms of body panels, they are completely interchangeable from Opel to Holden.

Of course, on the other hand, not one panel is shared with the current locally-designed and built Commodore that ceases production – along with Australian car-making -- late in 2017.

What we aren’t seeing here is the Sportwagon version of the new Commodore that will also be going on sale here in February 2018, or the high-ride crossover version that is expected to head to Australia later the same year.

Today’s reveal is designed to coincide with imagery issued by Opel of the Insignia, which is scheduled to gets its public debut at the Geneva motor show in March before going on sale in Europe mid-year.

Inspired by the 2013 Monza concept car, the Sportback body is 74mm shorter than the current VFII Commodore sedan, as well as 36mm narrower, 3mm higher and has a slick 0.26Cd coefficient of drag.

The prominent grille and slim-line headlights are obvious Monza-inspired design elements, while the extended roofline is designed to give the car coupe-like look. At the rear double-wing LED tail-lights are intended to give the Commodore a low, wide appearance.

Inside, the cockpit is organised along horizontal lines and oriented toward the driver. A frameless 8.0-inch touch-screen situated at the top of the centre stack handles many functions, while there are three clusters of buttons that allows access to essentials without diving into touch-screen sub-menus.

In terms of interior space there are substantial reductions in rear headroom (-13mm), shoulder room (-58mm) and hiproom (-44mm) compared to VFII, but some of other measures such as rear kneeroom and front headroom are unchanged, at least in part because of the more efficient interior provided by a transverse drivetrain arrangement.

Along with releasing imagery of Commodore, Holden has today also announced more equipment details for the MY18 Commodore, as well as providing further technical information about the car’s FlexRide adaptive suspension.

Holden also claimed today the Commodore V6’s torque vectoring Twinster twin-clutch all-wheel drive system was a “world first”. But after it was pointed out that Land Rover and Ford already used Twinster, that claim was modified to a world-first in its segment or class.

Driver assist features that will be available with the new Commodore include autonomous emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, speed limit cruise control, lane departure warning, lane keep assist, forward collision alert, side blind-zone alert, rear cross-traffic alert and a 360-degree camera.

Among that lot the current Commodore sedan and wagon can already be had with forward collision alert, lane departure warning, blind spot alert and reverse traffic alert.

MY18 Commodore comfort and convenience technologies confirmed today include massage seats, one-touch folding rear seats, heated front and rear seats, ventilated front seats, express up/down for all windows, noise cancellation and tailgate power opening for the wagon.

Front-seat heating is available with the current Commodore, while the wagon alone gets a split/folding rear seat.

Holden revealed the FlexRide system employs continuously adaptable electro-hydraulic dampers that assess and adapt to road conditions 500 times per second.

The driver can adjust the dampers – as well as steering and throttle – via the Drive Mode Control software through ‘Standard’, ‘Tour’ and ‘Sport’ modes.

Standard automatically selects the best set-up based on sensor inputs, Tour is for relaxed cruising and fuel-saving and Sport provides more direct throttle and steering feedback, flattens the chassis and reduces dive under brakes.

Today’s info drop comes on top of other previously confirmed tech and spec details, including the facts the MY18 Commodore:

>> Is based on General Motors’ E2 front/all-wheel drive architecture
>> Will be 200-300kg lighter than the locally-built Commodore
>> Will feature AWD, a naturally-aspirated 230kW/370Nm V6 engine and nine-speed auto in its flagship model
>> Will come with a V6 with fuel efficiency aided by idle-start and active fuel management (cylinder shutdown)
>> Will also be available with 2.0-litre turbo-diesel and petrol front-wheel drive powertrains
>> Will be available with Matrix LED lighting
>> Will include Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, 8.0-inch configurable LCD display and head-up display.

What isn’t mentioned here, of course, is the lack of rear-wheel drive, a V8 or turbocharged V6, or a ute version of the next Commodore.